2018 Advent Review
Now that the month (as far as the advent calendar goes) is over, what did everyone think of their calendars?
Mine was lame and I’d not recommend it. I got the Fortnum and Mason one. It was the $60 Tea Lover’s cardboard version, not the super fancy $300 wooden version. You get one tea bag for each day (the price breaks down to $2.50 a bag) and most of the teas were really underwhelming. Based on other Steepster reviews of the teas I was trying I’d have to guess that the tea was of old stock because the flavor intensity others were describing was not what I was experiencing. The other issue that I had with this calendar is the repeating teas. There were 17 different teas for 24 days, meaning 7 were repeats. Some I didn’t bother to try again after not liking them the first day. An advent calendar seems like a great marketing opportunity to expose people to a variety of your products in a fun and festive way, but F&M appears to have used it as a way to dump an excess of old stock. It seems like it was a last minute afterthought.
So now I’m plotting on which to get next year and to buy one in Spetember before they sell out. TheOdor? TeaGschwendner? Any recommendations or warnings?
I got Tea Revv, T2, and 52Teas.
I’ve been really underwhelmed by Tea Revv in general – they seem to be kind of weak and I just haven’t been impressed by many of their blends. The packaging was nothing special, though I do enjoy their graphic style. It was individual packets of loose tea, supposedly enough for 2 cups but I had to use the entire thing for 6 oz and didn’t really care for many of them.
52Teas was packaged really cute and I think they were nice teas, just not so much to my personal taste. I would still recommend them without qualms, though, if that makes sense. I generally didn’t numerically rate them when I did rate them, because they all seem to be well-made teas, just not my preference and it doesn’t seem fair to rate a tea low just because it’s not my favorite flavors but it’s otherwise well-made.
The T2 one is going to be consumed in January, when the world is gray and blah, so I don’t have commentary on it yet except to say the packaging is cute and I’ve been pleased with most of their teas so far, so I’m optimistic.
In the past, I’ve had them from Davids (cute packaging, teas are hit or miss) and from Les Palais des Thes (one tea bag per day, generally enjoyable but nothing spectacular, packaging nothing special).
Wow, you went advent crazy! I like it! I haven’t tried T2 teas yet. I have also done the David’s and felt the same about their teas. The packaging is done really well and I like that they have 2-3 servings worth. I wasn’t a fan of most of the Les Palais teas I’ve had, so a calendar from them was an easy pass for me. I did the Damman Freres advent a few years ago and wasn’t impressed with their teas. The packaging was standard and had tea bags, but others really enjoy their teas.
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